This is the first MMA event I've ever been to, but judging from the flyer I was expecting a chickenwire cage and thugs in Affliction/Tapout gear everywhere. It wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined it, the crowd was adult - I think a lot were there supporting family members. I saw many gyms represented from around the south east.

It ended up getting started about 2 hours late, but someone told me that the equipment (like the ring), judges and medical staff all got delayed due to traffic problems coming out of Nashville. The ref seemed very competent, quick on his feet and worked very hard to keep the fights going.

It was a mix of well trained and some newbie fights. In several of the early ones I watched, the folks fighting had only a couple months of training and it was pretty obvious. However, other matches were pretty good. Various sports were represented - they had some using Kickboxing rules, some were San Shou, some Muay Thai and some MMA. There were 2-3 female fights as well.

Our guy's match was 3rd, he fought MMA at 145lbs. Big congratulations out to Anthony from SBGa for winning in the 2nd round by triangle choke, he really made us proud.

The WTKA South East Regional MMA Championship belt at 170lbs was a pretty awesome fight. The current champ got his leg caught in the ropes during the early parts of the first round and we could tell it got fucked up. He had trouble supporting his weight on it, but he held off the other guy till the bell rang. In the second round he came right in and fucking head-kicked his opponent, got his back and ended up G&P to win. They had to help him out of the ring because he had broken his leg the first round. Pretty tough.

By 10-11pm, they still had about 8 matches to go, so we left and got some dinner.

My biggest criticism of the event would really have to be more with the coaches than the event itself. Several of the fights we watched were uneven match-ups or fighters who had obviously not trained or prepared enough to be in the ring yet. There was also one guy that I think under-represented his record in order to get an easy fight, and I really hope karma catches up with him someday.

My Own Opinions/Observations
* MMA shouldn't be fought in a ring, do that **** in a cage
* Coaches should be responsible when selecting an opponent for their guys to fight.
* Nutshots happen a lot in people's first fights, apparently.
* I sound like a redneck when cheering on a teammate.
* Make a better flyer, wtf.